Dodia Electricals

You can find us at 9/11 Picket X Road in the G T Building. We’re right in the middle of Lohar Chawl. If you’ve ever been to this part of Mumbai, you know it’s crowded and loud every single day. The streets are filled with people buying wires, lights, and everything else. Our shop, Dodia Electricals, is small and packed from floor to ceiling with stock. There isn't much room to move around once two or three customers come in. We’ve got boxes stacked in every corner. It’s a bit of a maze, but we know exactly where every fuse and switch is kept. We’ve been in this building for decades. The walls could use a fresh coat of paint, and the ceiling fan makes a clicking sound, but it works fine. We spend most of the day talking to customers and fetching items from the high shelves using a wooden ladder. It’s a family-run kind of thing. My uncle handles the accounts in a thick ledger book at the front desk. We don't use a computer for the sales, just handwritten receipts. Sometimes the power goes out and we use candles or battery lights. It’s a busy life, and the noise from the street never really stops until late at night. We close up around eight and head home tired. There is a really good samosa place around the corner that we go to for our afternoon snack. It keeps us going.